L200 RARE 20s JB HIRSCH, FRENCH ART DECO METAL CALCITE VENICE CARNEVALE BOOKENDS For Sale - New and Used

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L200 RARE 20s JB HIRSCH, FRENCH ART DECO METAL CALCITE VENICE CARNEVALE BOOKENDS

Item Description We are extremely pleased to offer this fantastic pair of French likely American imported Art Deco bookends featuring bronzed cast ladies in the scintillating hooded, sash & leotard garb of Carnevale in Venice ca. the early 1700s. The rarest aspect of these ladies are the carved & hand painted facial inserts, which brings us to a conundrum. Although the French pioneered this technology of adding carved bone faces & hands to their hollow bronzes, we usually expect to see marble or other highly polished hard stone bases. Our example with the basic calcite base, makes us think American form the same period. It has been noted that several American firms in the 1920s & 1930s also used this form, but rather than inserting expensive polished bone or Ivory, that had been outlawed in America, domestic firms used the addition of a very fine refined Celluloid (thermoplastic) formula called Ivorene. One of the primary foundries in the USA that embraced the French tradition, dutifully producing period treasures, was J. B. Hirsch. This pair has been attributed to Hirsch, but appear unsigned, which makes us think these were one of his imported groups prior to the mid 1920s. x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x The New York Art Bronze Works in Manhattanâ¿¿s lower East side, was founded in 1907 by Romanian born metal smith, Joseph B. Hirsch. Hirsch had close ties to Europe, and during that period, French foundries associated with the talented artists and sculptors of the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, began producing their now famous works in French Bronze. Some of the finest talent throughout Europe trained at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, exhibiting their works at the Salon de Artistes and other great Salons in Paris, which was the center of the art world at that time. J.B. Hirsch seize on that moment to begin importing Avant Garde,and soon Art Deco pieces directly from French foundries. Subsequent to WW I, when the French occupation closed one of Hirschâ¿¿s primary suppliers, he journeyed to Paris and purchased that companyâ¿¿s molds to begin his own casting foundry. With the acquisitions of additional molds from French, German and Italian foundries, Hirsch was able to put together the finest and rarest collection of Beaux Arts, Nouveau and Deco sculptural molds in the world. Between the wars, during the 1920s and 1930s, an entirely new modern style of decorative art emerged, using a combination of bronze and ivory. With the ban of ivory in the early 1930s, Ivorine Celluloid, generally regarded to be the first thermoplastic (a nitrocellulose and camphor combination, plus dyes and other structuring agents) was used in its place, to represent the exposed flesh encased in the bronze or spelter clothing body. The combination of French Bronze (spelter) and ivory or ivorine were fully exploited during the Art Deco period using events of discovery. Such inspirations came from the opening of King Tutâ¿¿s Tomb in the 1920s, celebrities, athletes including the 1936 Olympic Games, the fashions and costumes of various Romantic periods by Erte and Gerdago, and dancers from the French and Russian national Ballets. x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x During World War II, the French foundries were again prohibited from using metal for statues, and to preserve their history of France from destruction, the molds were broken up, the pieces scattered, buried under factory floors, and hidden in house cellars. Most French foundries remained closed after World War II, and the molds remained hidden, until 1948, when J.B. Hirschâ¿¿s son, Abraham, heard of their existence, and planned archaeological expeditions to France to search for the buried mold fragments. Between 1948 and 1963 Abraham Hirsch was able to piece together over 200 objects and acquire the molds from 15 former French Bronze foundries. Abrahamâ¿¿s son, Stanley was put in charge of reassembling exhumed molds that arrived in pieces, and after attending a symposium on the Beaux Arts by the NY Metropolitan Museum of Arts, Stanley Hirsch made the startling discovered that he was in possession of the original molds from which many of the displayed pieces were cast! Putting together the puzzle of scrambled parts is still an ongoing process, and while it continues, J.B. Hirsch bookends are the most sought after of all bookend manufacturers. We are very grateful to the great web site http://antiquebookends.net/ for their outstanding historical data.
Retail Value Estimate: $425-$475
Condition: chipping to bases, inst. broken on 1, tarnish
Weight: 5lb
Measurements (LxWxH): 3.5 inches x 3.75 inches x 6.5 inches
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